“Blair Holliday is a valued member of the Duke community and (an) inspiration to everyone,” Michael J. Schoenfeld, Duke’s vice president for public affairs, told the paper. “We are working to facilitate his return to the Duke campus in the near future.”

Holliday told Sporting News in November that he hoped to take one class this semester, and the plan was for him to take it with David Helton, his roommate and teammate. Holliday, a sophomore psychology major, had a 3.75 GPA the semester before the accident. He chose Duke over other schools that recruited him because he thought the other schools weren’t strong enough academically.

“He was really disappointed. He tried to not get out of bed, but I made him,” Leslie Holliday, his mother, told the Venutra (Calif.) County Star. “He wanted to get back into school and get back to a normal life around his friends. His doctor at Shepherd Center was 100 percent behind him doing it, but I think Duke maybe feels like it is looking out for his best interest, too, to make sure when he does come back he succeeds.”

Holliday was riding a jet ski on Lake Tillery on July 4th when another wide receiver on a jet ski, Jamison Crowder, accidentally ran into him. Crowder pulled Holliday from the water while a witness to the accident called 911.

Holliday was in a coma-like state for nearly a month before making what his friends and family call a miraculous recovery. After transferring from a North Carolina hospital to the Shepherd Center, a rehab facility in Atlanta, he relearned to walk and talk. He was a constant presence on the sideline for Duke football games.

He wanted to return to school as a part-time student, but Duke only allows that for graduate students nearing completion during their last semester of enrollment.